Leasing is Broken

You may not even know.

There’s a script. You’ve heard it. You’ve probably lived it.

It goes something like this:

"We have a 1-bed, 1-bath at 700 square feet for $2,850 a month. This floor plan is one of our most popular! Let me show you the finishes, and if you like it, we can talk about our limited-time concessions."

That’s it. That’s the pitch. No consideration for how someone actually lives in a space. No effort to weave a story that connects the apartment to someone’s aspirations, lifestyle, or stage of life. Just square footage and price—a glorified Craigslist ad in human form.

The Default Leasing Script is Broken

Multifamily leasing is stuck in a transactional, commoditized mindset. Agents sell apartments like car salesmen push base models—touting features, pricing promotions, and limited-time availability. What they fail to do is tap into the deeper why of a move: Why does someone want to live here? What kind of life do they see for themselves in this space? How does this home fit into the story they’re writing for themselves?

Retail, hospitality, even sneaker brands understand this. Walk into an Aesop store, and they don’t just sell you soap—they sell you an identity, a ritual, a feeling of elevated taste. Multifamily leasing? They sell you a 2-bed, 2-bath with a pool view.

Why Do We Pretend Buildings Are Castles?

Here’s another leasing classic: zero mention of the neighborhood. It’s as if the apartment exists in a vacuum, a standalone entity with no connection to the world outside.

Except people don’t live in castles. They live in neighborhoods. They choose an apartment not just for the walls but for the city blocks surrounding it—the coffee shop they’ll frequent, the park they’ll stroll through, the bar where they’ll make bad decisions. Yet, leasing agents treat buildings as islands, failing to acknowledge the context that makes a place feel like home.

This is a missed opportunity. A leasing experience should be a gateway to the city, an insider’s introduction to what life could look like in this place—not a sterile tour that ends with an iPad asking for an application fee.

The Missing Brand Story

Here’s what else is absent in most leasing experiences: brand.

The best apartments have a clear brand promise—something that makes them distinct in a market flooded with "luxury" sameness. But leasing offices fail to tell that story. There’s no emotional hook, no narrative, no differentiation beyond the same quartz countertops every other building has. The personality of the space is erased, leaving behind a generic "resort-style" experience that could be anywhere.

Hospitality, on the other hand, gets it. Book a room at the NoMad or The Hoxton, and the brand is everywhere—in the welcome email, the check-in process, the in-room experience. Multifamily, meanwhile, still sends leasing follow-ups from a property management company you’ve never heard of. Believe it or not, in our experience, 5 out of 10 of those messages still have “[Insert Property]” instead of the actual property name.

Multifamily Follow-Up is a Joke

This brings us to the absolute worst part of the leasing experience: the follow-up.

You tour a place called The Franklin. Bad name, decent vibe. The design is intentional. The leasing team speaks about it with pride. You leave intrigued.

And then, the next day, you get a robotic text from XYZ Property Management Group: "Thank you for touring. Please let us know if you have any questions."

Who is XYZ Property Management? That’s not the brand you connected with. That’s not the building you saw. This is the equivalent of booking a stay at The Bowery Hotel and getting a confirmation email from "NYC Hospitality Holdings, LLC." The best hotels never let you forget who they are. Multifamily somehow erases itself the moment you step outside the leasing office.

Secret Shopping: The Reality Check

We’ve secretly shopped in hundreds of apartment buildings across the country. It’s not a terribly fun part of the job, but it’s helped us hone our improv skills. And the result?

Staggering sameness. Over and over again, the same uninspired leasing process, the same generic pitches, the same failure to create any real connection.

We’ve walked into design-forward buildings that feel like they should be special—only to be greeted with the same impersonal tour script as a cookie-cutter mid-rise in the suburbs. We’ve asked leasing agents about the neighborhood, only to be met with blank stares. We’ve asked about the origin of the brand name, only to be looked at with bewilderment. We’ve asked about the neighborhoods, only to be told: “It’s good to sometimes live a ways away from the action.” We’ve left beautiful spaces feeling nothing because the process made them forgettable.

How Leasing Could Actually Be Good

So, what’s the fix?

1. Intentional discovery. Your agents should understand their customers even before they arrive. How about a pre-call? Get to know them. Screen them for their attitudes and behaviors; their life stages and needs. Once they get into the building? There’s a true contextualization of what you have to offer and where they are in life.

2. Storytelling over specs. Leasing teams should be trained like hospitality concierges, capable of painting a vivid picture of life in the space—not just rattling off features. Arm them with a brand-forward story that they can recite in their sleep…the full story arc from “here’s a pain we see in the world” to “here’s how we’re going to solve that pain in an incredible way.”

3. Neighborhood as a selling point. Make the leasing experience feel like an insider’s guide to the area, not just a walk through the amenities. Prepare your team to provide small stories of the glory of your surroundings: “Here’s where I get coffee around the bend. This is what they do with their Cortado that blew my mind. Btw, Infatuation just rated them a 10.”

4. Brand consistency everywhere. No more generic follow-ups from faceless property managers. Every email, text, and touchpoint should feel like an extension of the brand. Use your brand voice, especially in the most boring scenarios.

5. A hospitality mindset. Follow-up should feel personal, thoughtful, and engaging—like how the best hotels make you feel valued before, during, and after your stay. Pick up the phone, send a letter, do something creative.

Multifamily leasing has the potential to be so much better. The best apartments already have a story. It’s time leasing teams learned how to tell it.

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🚨 WHO IS NO WALLS STUDIO (AND WHAT DO WE DO)?

No Walls Studio is a design and brand consultancy that helps real estate developers create spaces that people love.

Our mission is to make sameness extinct in real estate, which means that everything we do comes with new ideas and unique angles — all, grounded in a deep understanding of culture and consumers.

We do three things for our clients (often, all in the same project):

• Research & Insights

• Brand Development

• Spatial Experience Design

Want to work with us or learn more?